S'porean investor embroiled in N. Sumatra protest

Ridwan Max Sijabat and Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Merek

A landslide and a hotel development in a 200-hectare area encroaching on conservation land have pushed the small town of Merak into the spotlight.

A nationwide controversy emerged when the development of the tourist resort by a Singaporean company caused a landslide that washed away three hectares of paddy fields belonging to locals.

Several other villagers whose farmland was also affected by the landslide have not yet received any compensation, prompting them to protest.

Problems for the developer deepened when the North Sumatra provincial administration discovered that part of the tourist resort was in a protected forest and PT Merek Indah Lestari (PT MIL) had not yet obtained an environmental impact certificate (Amdal).

The administration asked the management to suspend development activities until the land status was clarified but the management has so far ignored the plea.

Several villagers in Kodon-kodon village, which is located on an area lower than the tourist resort and facing Lake Toba, said the empty land was theirs but say they have not yet received any compensation from the company.

Company management has disclosed documents that purport to show the company's official ownership of the land and said it bought the land from the residents of three neighboring villages, Kodon-kodon, Pangambantan and Tongging.

Other Kodon-kodon residents, meanwhile, have expressed opposition to the ongoing development project, following the recent landslide that washed away paddy fields and fish breeding ponds.

"The creation of waterways and the development of a golf course and other facilities on vulnerable land could trigger more landslides and the flooding of villages on lower-lying land," a villager, J. Simanjorang, told The Jakarta Post here recently.

Before the work started the infertile land on a barren rocky mountainside land had remained undeveloped.

Monang Simanjorang, another resident of Kodon-kodon, and Anthon Bahrul Alam Munthe, a resident of Pangambatan, said people from the three villages had received compensation in 2000.

"The unpaid residents will receive what is their right directly from the management, but they can no longer claim the land as theirs because it has already been sold by the Simanjorang family to the company," Monang said.

PT MIL president Mustika Akbar said his company had obtained an investment permit from the Capital Investment Coordinating Agency (BKPM) and the Karo regental administration to develop an international-standard tourist resort.

"The Singaporean investor has allocated Rp 150 billion to develop a nine-hole golf course, a five-star hotel with large swimming pool, an interfaith religious park and a commercial greenhouse.

"Beside being a source of income to the local administration, the tourist resort will employ more than 1,000 people, to be recruited from the subdistrict," he said.

He denied a report that part of the tourist resort was included in the protected forest and the company was damaging the environment, saying the forest land that had been used to accommodate a hotel previously belonged to local people.

"The company is committed to preserving the environment by developing a safari garden and an eight-hectare orange plantation, and planting large trees around the resort's border areas," he said.

Mustika said it was impossible to prevent landslides during the rainy season. "The landslide came from the dredging of land to create waterways inside the hilly resort," he said.

His company would continue with the development as it had received the go-ahead from the local administration, he claimed.

Singaporean investor had become interested in the area because of its natural beauty, with Lake Toba in the background.

"The tourist resort will be able to attract tourists from Europe, Japan, the United States and ASEAN countries," he said.

North Sumatra Governor T. Rizal Nurdin said he had asked PT MIL to suspend the development project until his team had completed its check on the proposed tourist resort's status and boundaries.

"The project must be halted permanently if the area includes the protected conservation area. My team, accompanied by officials from the Tanah Karo regental administration, is still at the site," he said.

North Sumatra Environmental Forum executive director Herwin Nasution said the government had yet to revoke the investment permit and order the management of PT Merek Indah Lestari to suspend the project. The development was taking place in a protected forest and impacted on the water catchment area in the Toba highlands, which had to be maintained to supply water to Lake Toba, he said.

"The government should form an independent team to investigate the matter. PT MIL has also breached Law No. 41/1999, which prohibits any human activities in protected forests and parks as part of the tourist resort is being built in the protected forest, which is home to numerous rare mammals," he said.

Jaya Arjuna, another environmental activist, said that in accordance with the sustainable development concept, development activities on environmentally important areas were tolerable as long as they did not cause environmental degradation and used environmentally friendly technology.